Chanson de geste which forms part of the socalled ‘Cycle de Saint-Gilles’, being composed as a sequel to Élie de Saint-Gilles. It recounts the career of Élie's son Aiol who leaves Provence with his father's rusty armour and fine old horse Marchegai, and meets with derision from the better-accoutred though obviously less meritorious people whom he encounters on his way to Charlemagne's court. There, despite the machinations of the traitor Macaire and misadventures with Saracens, he finally establishes himself, marries, and has the traitor tried and executed.
Aiol is nearly 11, 000 lines long and was composed in the late 12th-early 13th c. A lively and amusing work, it falls metrically into two parts, the first in decasyllables, the second in alexandrines. The decasyllabic lines are unusual in that they have a caesura after the sixth rather than the fourth syllable, a trait found in Girart de Roussillon, but otherwise virtually unknown in the chansons de geste.
[Sarah Kay]
